Prosecutors say former Milwaukee County Supervisor Peggy West in several ways falsified the nomination papers that got her on the spring election ballot.

West was charged last week, but the criminal complaint was not released until Monday, when West made her initial court appearance. She waived a preliminary hearing, and Commissioner Barry Phillips bound her over for trial and set a $5,000 signature bond. She's due back in court Aug. 8 for arraignment.

The complaint indicates that several people whose names appear on West's nomination petition told a detective they never signed. Two even said the printed name next to their bogus signatures were not spelled correctly.

Others admitted signing the petitions but said they had never met West, who is listed as having personally obtained the signatures.

Jay Reinke told a detective he gathered some signatures for West on Dec. 2, 2017, at a bakery, and handed it to West with four spaces left blank on the fourth page. Shown the same page with those lines filled in, and the date changed to Dec. 8 next to his initials, Reinke said he neither obtained the additional signatures nor changed and initialed the date.

West told the detective the allegations from her election opponent were false and that West had had numerous phone calls with a Milwaukee County elections coordinator to make sure she was doing everything correctly.

Sylvia Ortiz-Velez(Photo: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

That official, Suzette Emmer, told the detective she had only one in-person conversation with West, in which West adamantly insisted she had followed the law in getting her signatures.

Some of the signers said a younger, pregnant woman was the person who solicited their signatures. West's daughter, Emiliana Lorenzo, was pregnant when she helped her mother get signatures in December. She told a detective that at on least two pages she purportedly signed as the collector, however, the signature was her mother's handwriting.

West, former chair of the board's finance committee, lost her bid for a fifth term on the District 12 County Board seat representing the south side in April, losing to Sylvia Ortiz-Velez.

Ortiz-Velez filed a complaint in February with the Milwaukee County Ethics Board accusing West of lying about personally circulating nomination papers to get on the ballot. The complaint included affidavits from several people saying someone else had collected the signatures on the 1800 block of West Becher Street and the 500 block of South Layton Boulevard.

West is represented by attorney Michael S. Maistelman.

"Peggy has been fully cooperating with the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office," Maistelman said Friday.